Setting Up MySQL

Introduction

The Panel uses MySQL or MariaDB in two ways:

• The Panel's own database stores your users, servers, and settings. You create it once, when you install the Panel.
• Database hosts are optional. They let the Panel create databases for your game servers, such as a database for a Minecraft plugin.

This guide uses MariaDB, which the installation guides install. The SQL is the same for MySQL.

Signing In to MariaDB

Run the MariaDB client as root:

mariadb -u root

On a new installation, MariaDB lets the system's root user sign in without a password. If you set a root password, add -p, and the client asks for it.

Creating the Panel's Database

The Panel needs a database and a user that can use it. Replace yourPassword with a strong, unique password:

CREATE USER 'pterodactyl'@'127.0.0.1' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourPassword';
CREATE DATABASE panel;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON panel.* TO 'pterodactyl'@'127.0.0.1' WITH GRANT OPTION;

The user can only sign in from 127.0.0.1, the same machine. If the database runs on a different machine from the Panel, use the Panel's IP address instead.

Getting Started runs these same statements, so you do not need to run them again if you followed it.

Creating a Database Host

A database host is a MariaDB server on which the Panel creates databases for game servers. You may use the Panel's own MariaDB server, or a separate one.

Creating a User for the Panel

The Panel needs a MariaDB user that can create databases, and create users for them. Do not reuse the Panel's own database user.

MariaDB only lets a user sign in from the address it was created for. The Panel connects to the database host from the Panel server's IP address, so create the user for that address. Sign in to MariaDB on the database host, and run the statements below. Replace 203.0.113.10 with the Panel server's IP address, and yourPassword with a strong, unique password:

CREATE USER 'pterodactyluser'@'203.0.113.10' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourPassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'pterodactyluser'@'203.0.113.10' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Use the IP address even when the database runs on the same machine as the Panel. The Panel connects to the address you enter as the host's Host below, and when that is the machine's own IP address, the connection comes from that address, not from 127.0.0.1.

Allowing Connections From Game Servers

Game servers connect to their databases from inside their containers, so MariaDB must accept connections from other addresses than 127.0.0.1.

By default, MariaDB only listens on 127.0.0.1. To listen on every address, create /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/99-pterodactyl.cnf with these contents:

[mysqld]
bind-address=0.0.0.0

Then restart MariaDB:

systemctl restart mariadb

If you use a firewall, allow port 3306 only from the addresses that need it, such as your nodes. Game servers on the same machine as the database connect through the address 172.18.0.1.

Adding the Host to the Panel

In the Panel, open Admin → Database Hosts and click New Database Host. Fill in these fields:

• Name: A name to identify the host.
• Host: The IP address of the MariaDB server, such as its public IP address. The Panel connects to it with this address, and shows it to users as the address to connect to, so it must work for both.
• Port: Usually 3306.
• Linked Node: Optional. Servers on this node use this host by default.
• Username and Password: The user you created above.

Click Create Host. The Panel tries to connect with these details before it saves the host.

Creating Databases for Servers

A server's owner creates databases from the server's Databases page. Each server may have as many databases as its Database Limit allows. The limit is 0 by default. Set it when you create the server, or later on the server's Build tab in the admin area.

The Panel creates the database on the host linked to the server's node. If no host is linked to that node, it uses any host. To stop the Panel from choosing a host that is not linked to the node, set this in your .env file:

PTERODACTYL_CLIENT_DATABASES_ALLOW_RANDOM=false

Administrators may also create databases for a server from the server's Database tab in the admin area, and choose the host.